Building bridges

One of the major things about a studying abroad is building bridges. Making connections that will be around for a life time, and also making connections within the communities that other students from UNK can come in and go to for help, projects, and etc. It was one of our class projects was to do something in the community of Spiddal so future students from UNK could continue being a part of the community. As simple as this sounds, it was not so easy as Spiddal is a pretty small town and is only really active in the summer months. With that being said the thing that Jessica and I ended up doing was meeting with the Community Development Leader. Aiden, of Spiddal  three difference times looking for other opportunities to be involved not realizing that we were already building a bridge just by talking with so much. One thing that he thought we would be able to do was a Ireland contest called Tidy Towns, which gives the cleanest town in Ireland a reward. Unfortunately, because of insurance concerns we were not able to be involved in that.
 We also discussed trying to do things with inthe GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association), but it wouldn't possible for us to work with kids because we have not gone through the necessary background checks. So anything with kids was out the door.
The one thing that we did through all of this searching of some type of community service we could do was build a bridge. Aiden did not know about the UNK study abroad group in Spiddal before we had talked to him. By meeting with Aiden he got to know Jessica and I. We talked about politics, elections, community of Spiddal, UNK, and future study abroad programs of UNK. While we did not get to complete what most people would consider a "service project", we built bridges and lay down the foundation for UNK students that will come after us.Which was the primary purpose of our service project in Spiddal. Aiden now knows that UNK students would like to get involved in community, and he will work to make sure that happens in that future.